Music typewriter



ill 25 1923. 7 1,478,946

' L. FORTONI MUSIC TYPEWRITER Filed Oct. 19. 1921 3 She s-Sheet 1 .I I C hL w Dec. 25, 1923. 1,478,946

L. FORTON] MUS IC TYPEWRITER Filed Oct. 19 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Rmexzr Dec. 25, 1923.

L. FORTONI MUS IC TYPEWRITER Filed Oct. 19. 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented D... as, 1923.

umran STATES LUIGI FOBTONI, OF- LONDON, ENGLAND.

MUSIC TYPEWRITER.

Applieation filed october 19, 1921. Serial No. 508,852.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LUIGI FORTONI, a subject of the King of Italy, residing at London, England, have invented new and use- 6 ful Improvements in Music Typewriters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is in the nature of an improvement upon the music type-writer for which I obtained United States Letters Patent No. 1,073,976, wherein there is described a construction and arrangement of type bars carrying revoluble polygonal printing-blocks bearing musical notes, signs, or other characters, and means for operat- 1 ing these bars to bring the printing blocks into operation for printing on pa er. 7

ccording to the resent invention, I dispense with these po ygonal printing blocks and their bars, and, in their stead, I employ polygonal printing-wheels, or discs, (heremafter called printing-wheels) of any suitable shape, having flats or faces of equal length to correspond with the longest length 2 of the musical note, sign, or other character to be carried thereon, and I operate these wheels in the manner about to be described.

The invention further comprises certain other features which will be hereinafter reea ferred to.

And in order that the invention may be readily understood, I will now describe it fully with reference to the'accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of so much of the machine as is necessa to explain the invention, the side being broken away in order that the parts may be clearly seen.

Fig. 2 is a front view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a detail view, to a arger scale, of one of the type-levers now made use of, and certain of its associated parts.

Fig. 4 is a section of one of the type levers, taken on the line y, y, of Fig. 3.

Figs. 5 and 6 are views, to alarger scale,

of a detail, and

Figs. 7 and 8 are enlar ed views of two forms of the revoluble po ygonal printingwheels used.

According to the Ipresent invention, each revoluble polygona printing-wheel a is the musicmounted on the free end of a recessed and pivoted lever-arm b, of which there may be any suitable number, but, advantageously, 53 I employ 40. These lever-arms being all a segmental or arc-shaped plate alike in construction and operation, it will suifice to describe one only of them.

Each lever-arm b is pivoted at a in a support a fixed to the frame Z of the machine, and is operated by the usual typekeys A. The revoluble polygonal printingwheel a is operated by means of an endless chain c, lying within the lever-arm, and passing over pulleys d, d of unequal size, the smaller of which (1 is pivoted in the free end of the lever-arm b, and carries with it the revoluble polygonal printing-wheel a. This chain is provided, in its length, with a spiral spring a", to take up slack. The larger pulley 03 carries a sprocket or toothed wheel d*, which meshes with a rack e, supportedin a slot a formed in the support a, said rack being provided with a rod-like extension 0 both the rack and the rod bein free to move in a substantially horizontafi plane with the lever-arm b. The rack and rod may-be arrested at any desired position, by any suitable means, so as to revolve wholly, or partially, the printing-wheel, a. Advantageously, as shown by way of example in the drawings, these means'consists of (herein after called arc-shaped plate) Figs. 1 and 2, containing as many holes f, as there are type-levers, there being, in the present instance, as previously stated, 40. Into each of these holes f extends the threaded extremity of the rod 6 which carries an adjustable sto 0 (see Fig. 3). The purpose of-this arc-s aped plate is to guide the ro s 6 and to limit, to any desired extent, the revolution, or partial revolution, of each of the polygonal printing-wheels. The arcshaped plate f is supported on slides g (Fi 2) and is moved backwards and forwar s in a horizontal plane by the operation of a .cranked lever k (Figs. 1 and 2) working in a quadrant 1 containing a number of notches I" (see Figs. 5 and 6), said notches corresponding in number with the number of flats or faces on the revoluble poly onal printing-wheel, one of these faces eing termed the neutral face, because it strikes the musicpaper without any revolution of the printing-wheel having taken place. Where 1 this operation is required, the projection'k on the cranked lever is is engaged in the. lowest or first notch Z in the quadrant I, this position being the neutral position of the cranked lever is. Hence in a machine havin 40 lever-arms there will be 40 neutral faces. I

p is a chain, fixed at g to the lever-arm b and passing over a pulley p and connected by a rod p (Fig. 3) to a cranked lever 0, the purpose of which is hereinafter pointed out.

All the arms 6, except the'center one are cranked or bent at a suitable angle at their outer end (as is common in certain typewriters), so that when striking the musicpaper they shall be in proper vertical position, and, further, that they shall clear one another in their movements.

The operation of a pivoted lever-arm when it is desired to print, is as follows: The lever k is set" in the desired notch in the quadrant Z, so that as the pivoted lever arm moves upwardly, towards the paper, only a certain turning movement is imparted to the revoluble printing-wheel, this turning movement being controlled by the distance between the arc-shaped plate 1 which has been determined by the lever and the adjustable stop 0 which distance, as will be clearly seen from the drawings, depends upon the notch into which the cranked lever is is positioned. Thus, having set the cranked lever 71: in the required notch, pressure is imparted to the type-key A corresponding with the character to be printed. This pressure of the type-lever A causes the same to move about the pivot m, thereby transmitting, through the medium of a link at, (Fig.3) a partial revolution of the crank o, and this imparts a pull on the rod p and chain p, so causing the lever-arm b to rise and to assume the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, and the revoluble polygonal printing-w eel to strike the music-paper B, (carried in the carriage C), and so print the required note, sign, or character thereon. While the above-mentioned movementsare taking place, the sprocket or toothed wheel a! on the largerpulley d, is rotating, and

moves the rack e in a horizontal position, provided that the lever k is not in the neu tral position. But on the lever is "bein moved into any osition but neutral, an

the stop e reaching the arc-shaped late 7', the larger pulley d ceases to rotate, ut because the pivoted lever-arm b is still rising the chain a, partly winds around the larger i pulley d, and causes the smaller pulley d to rotate in an anti-clockwise direction, in

which direction the said pulley d carries Although in the drawings I have shown i a hexagonal and a triangular printing wheel,

it is to be understood that printing-wheels of any other polygonal form may be employed in combination with the revoluble polygonal printin -wheels, the triangular form shown in ig. 8 being that used for carrying a long character, as for instance, a note having a long stem. It is also to be understood that there is one notch Z of the quadrant l for each face of the polygonal printing-wheels, for example, when hexagonal and triangular printing-wheels are used in the same machine, there-will be six notches for the hexagonal wheel, the first notch being forthe neutral'position, and the third and fifth notches being used for the two active faces of the triangular wheels;

Having now described my invention, what I claim is 1. In a music type-writer, pivoted leverarms each provided at its outer end with a pulley carrying a revoluble polygonal printing-wheel, or disc, and at its inner end carrying a second ulley, a sprocket or toothed wheel carried by said second pulley, a driving chain passing over' said pulleys and actuating the printing-wheel or disc, and means for rocking sald lever-arms to bring the said rinting-wheel or disc, into position for printing on the music paper, substantially as described.

2. In a music typewriter, a pivoted lever arm, printing means carried by saidlever arm having a plurality of printin faces each adapted to be selectively broug t into operative position,- and means for se ectively bringing said printing faces into 0 erative position, said means comprising a s iftable rack rod associated with said printin means, guiding means for said rack rod, an

adjustable stops associated with said rack rod andsaid iding means.

3. In a music typewriter, a pivoted lever arm, printing means carried by said lever arm and having a plurality of printing faces selectively shiftable into operative position, means for rocking said lever arm to cause said printing means to make an impression, and means for selectively shifting said printing faces into operative position, said means comprising a lon itudinally movable rack bar, a guiding pate for said rack 1 selectively shiftab bar adjustable in the direction of the Ian h of said rack bar, and means carried said rack bar and engageable with said guiding plate.

4. In a music typewriter, printing means having a plurality of printing faces each e into operative position, and means for shifting sald printing faces into operative position, said means comprising a horizontally-movable late and means for adjusting said plate an securing it in adjusted position, said latter means comprising a pivoted lever associated with said plate and a quadrant having notches for engagement by said lever.

5. In a music typewriter, a ivoted lever arm carrying adjacent one 0 its ends a. wheel provided with a plurality of printing faces, means for rocking said lever arm to bring one of said printing 'faces into contact with a sheet of paper to make an imtion between said wheel and said rotatable element to cause rotation of the former when the latter is rotated in order to bring a se lected type face into operative position,

movable means engaging with said rotatable element and actuated by the latter during a portion of the movement of said lever arm, and adjustable means to limit the movement of said movable means and cause partial rotation of said rotatable element during further rocking movement of said lever am.

In. witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

. LUIGI FORTONI. Witnesses Ennns'r on Pass, Camus D. Ravmwsonorr. 

